Love Our Wetlands Waiheke is a local initiative led and guided by local experts. The project works with the Waiheke community and volunteer groups towards the ecological restoration and protection of 4 significant wetland habitats and surrounding environments on Waiheke Island – Te Matuku, Te Whau, Rangihoua & Matiatia Headland.

Since the project began in 2015 over 10,000 eco-sourced native trees have been planted with the help of more than 1,000 volunteers & over 4,500 hours of volunteer effort!

The project uses a volunteer workforce consisting of local schools, community groups and individuals at community planting days and also corporate volunteer groups that contact us through our partnership with Volunteer Auckland. These groups have been working on both planting and removing invasive weeds from the wetlands. The support of these groups have a huge part in the success of the project.

Why are wetlands important?

Wetlands are one of our richest natural resources, here are just some of the reasons why we love our wetlands!

Wetlands are like the kidneys of the earth. Wetlands improve water quality, they help to process nutrients, trap sediment & soils & filter contaminants for the water as it flow from the land out to the ocean.

Wetlands trap carbon. The peet bogs found in wetlands mean that any fallen tree and plant debits can lay undisturbed for centuries trapping the carbon in the bog.

Wetlands reduce flooding effects. They act like sponges sucking up water during floods and releasing it in drought.

Wetlands are a nursery and habitat to many rare and endangered bird, fish & plant species. More species of wildlife inhabit a wetland than bushland the same size.

In New Zealand only 10% of wetlands remain. Being an island community we are more connected to the waterways and ocean that surrounds us. If you would like to be involved in the restoration work happening in your community click here to find out how.

The Love Our Wetlands Waiheke project welcomes groups from around New Zealand looking to engage with environmental community projects.

We are able to assist with planning your travel to and around Waiheke, and can also arrange visits to local vineyards or attractions should you wish to make the most of the visit.

With the help of our generous sponsor Fullers we are able to offer volunteer groups 50% discount on adult return ferry travel. Nice one Fullers!!

One on the island our knowledgeable Volunteer Coordinators will meet your group at Matiatia Wharf and journey out to one of the 4 Wetlands - Te Matuku, Rangihoua, Te Whau & Matiatia. Once at the wetland the day will be spent planting, removing weeds, learning about local history, native plants, animal and fish species and all about our amazing natural resources - Wetlands!

In 2017 with the help of the Million Metres Streams Project and hundreds of generous donors we were able to raise $43,000 to further restore 1483 metres of the Rangihoua Wetland.

We can envision a wetland oasis of Manuka, Kanuka, Totara, Puriri, Kowhai and Harakeke at this site. We are planting more than 2,500 square metres and 1483 metres of waterway with 1,020 more native trees going in next year.

Million Metres is a fantastic project highlighting the importance of our waterways. A wonderful brain child of the Sustainable Business Network with the aim to plant 1,000,000 metres of NZ waterways!

We love you Million Metres! Thanks so much for looking out for our waterways in Aotearoa, for us and our future generations!

If you would like to support Million Metres and the work they do head on over to their website here - https://millionmetres.org.nz/

In 2017 the Love Our Wetlands Waiheke project was very pleased to welcome our new sponsor Fullers. With Fullers support we are able to offer subsidised ferry travel to community, school and corporate volunteer groups coming from off island.

This fantastic partnership with Fullers is enabling more volunteers to engage with the project which supports more trees, less weeds and the opportunity to host groups to experience Waiheke’s valuable natural resources.

We work closely with Volunteering Auckland and here is what they have to say about the benefits of engaging your employees in volunteer community projects.

Benefits for the employer:

Volunteering provides an opportunity for your company to make a real difference in the community and initiate or further develop your Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

Volunteering gives staff an opportunity to contribute to the wider community, growing business loyalty and leading to a more positive internal environment, lowering staff turnover, and increasing motivation and productivity.

Volunteering is an effective branding and promotional strategy to raise public profile, it’s one of the simplest and most effective marketing tools for your business.

Volunteering strengthens both internal networks across teams and departments in the company and external networks in the community to open up business opportunities.

Benefits for the community:

Providing manpower to community projects to get important work done.

Potential to build resilience and capacity though providing valuable skills.

Opportunity to strengthen networks and form new relationships with businesses.